Piloting Uncharted Territory: Exploring Methods for Detecting Inflow and Infiltration from Private Sewer Laterals

HRSD is conducting a series of pilots called SLIP which stands for Sewer Lateral Investigation Program. During these pilots, the goal is to compare different methods and technologies for detecting Inflow and Infiltration (I/I) sources within the private portion of a sewer lateral. Lateral launching CCTV cameras are a major contributing source of data collected from each lateral, and when coupled with our simulated rain events has been very telling about potential I/I from the sewer laterals so far.With more and more wastewater agencies and utilities considering the adoption of private property I/I programs, the lessons learned by HRSD in these pilots may serve as important information for these future programs. Both investigative and rehabilitation methods and technologies for sewer laterals will be compared throughout these projects to determine their viability in the development of future pilots, and eventually a region wide private property I/I detection and abatement program.